In a highly mobile society, people commonly carry open beverage containers with them while they move about whether they walk, ride or fly. However, when such containers are shook, agitated, or jostled because they are subjected to the normal forces associated with a person's daily movements such as those forces caused by walking, or by automobiles hitting bumps or airplanes running into turbulence, the beverage contained therein forms small waves that often spill from the container.
Several attempts have been made to reduce such wave action by the introduction of various baffle devices into open beverage containers. For instance, Clovis, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,362,354, and Wachsman, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,428,056, each disclose the insertion of devices having a plurality of damping or wing members into a drinking container. Both disclose that their respective wing members are joined at a vertical central axis which is coaxial with the container's axis and are extended radially therefrom to the inner wall of the container. Both further disclose a frictional engagement of the outer ends of the wing members with the container's inner wall. Clovis also discloses flanges attached at the outer ends of the wing members adapted for face-to-face engagement with the inner surface of the container. Wachsman teaches a cover plate attached to the top of the wing members which overlays most of the liquid surface area except for a drinking opening disposed therein. Wachsman's cover plate is employed for the express purpose of maintaining the wing members in a radially spaced deployment and for providing a planular surface suitable for advertising and display indicia.
In another early attempt, Alexander, U.S. Pat. No. 3,400,855, discloses a spillproof container which has a baffle comprising a single, vertical planar member which extends laterally from one interior container wall to the diametrically opposed wall, and vertically from adjacent the bottom of the container to the upper horizontal plane thereof to thereby divide the container into two nearly identical sub-regions. Alexander's baffle has a plurality of apertures or openings randomly disposed in the member and a notch at the bottom thereof to allow free circulation of the liquid between the separate container sub-regions to allow mixing and to maintain a uniform temperature therein.
However, in practice, none of these prior art devices effectively accomplished all of the ultimate desiderata for such a device because they did not completely eliminate the lateral slosh and spillage from the associated beverage container, they were relatively expensive to make, and they were not usable in containers having other than a fixed diameter. It is to more efficiently overcome these problems and to attain the totality of the aforestated desiderata that the present invention is directed.